106 A MARVELLOUS DELIVERANCE.

Bordeaux. The wish was readily complied with,
and the insect was conveyed to MM. Bory de St.
Vincent and Dargelas. Latreille’s eminence as an
entomologist was already known to these gentle-
men, and, being thus made acquainted with his
perilous situation, they immediately exerted them-
selves to obtain, if possible, his liberation, in which
they ultimately succeeded. One trembles to think
that a month later he must in all probability have
shared the fate of his fellow-prisoners, who were
shipped as convicts for Cayenne, and the vessel
which conveyed them foundered in the Bay of
Biscay, when every soul on board perished. The
deliverance was truly marvellous, if we refer to its
cause—the accidental discovery of an insect. It
has been said by one of our great divines,* that “a
fly with God’s message could choke a king;” and
a little insignificant beetle thus saved Latreille.
How obscure the means God often employs, and
how apparently inadequate the instruments He
uses, to effect His wondrous purposes! It is ag
though He said, in language not to be mistaken,
“| kill, and I make alive.”

After Latreille’s release he relinquished his views
of entering the Church, and devoted himself en-
tirely to his favourite study. In 1797 he was again
proscribed as an émigré; but the favour of his fel-

* Jeremy Taylor.